nanowire fet

```svg Nanowire FET: wrap the gate all the way around the channelGate-all-around gives the best electrostatics — stack the wires back to get the drive current1 · More gated sideshow much of the channel the gate touchesplanar1 sideFinFET3 sidesGAA wireall aroundtighter electrostatic controlWrapping the gate on every side letsit shut the channel completely: asteeper subthreshold slope and farless drain-induced leakage than a fin.Copper = gate · green = silicon channel.This is the device behind the “GAA”nanosheet node at 2nm-class logic.2 · One wire is too thinstack channels to add drive widthsingle wirelow currentstacked sheets3× the widthA lone nanowire has a tiny perimeter,so it carries little current. Stackingseveral sheets under one shared gatemultiplies effective width in the samefootprint — this is the nanosheet FET.Sheet width is tunable: wide for drive,narrow for low-power cells.3 · How it’s builtthe Si / SiGe superlattice trickGrow a superlatticealternating Si and SiGe epitaxiallayers — Si becomes the channels.Release the channelsa selective etch removes the SiGe,leaving suspended Si wires/sheets.Wrap gate + inner spacerhigh-k/metal fills all around eachsheet; spacers isolate it from S/D.Nanowire → nanosheet → CFETThe wire was the lab prototype; widesheets made it manufacturable (GAA).Next, CFET stacks nMOS over pMOSsheets to fold the cell in half.Gate-all-aroundGate surrounds the channel on everyside — the tightest control possible.Drive by stackingMore sheets = more width = morecurrent, with no extra floor area.The GAA lineageNanowire → nanosheet is how logicmoved past FinFET at 3/2nm. ``` Nanowire FET Overview Nanowire FET is a Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor with cylindrical (wire-shaped) silicon channels fully surrounded by the gate electrode. It offers the best electrostatic control of any transistor geometry. Nanowire vs. Nanosheet - Nanowire: Circular/small cross-section (~5-10nm diameter). Best gate control but limited drive current per wire. - Nanosheet: Wider rectangular cross-section (10-50nm wide). More drive current per sheet. Preferred by industry for production. - Both are GAA: Gate wraps all four sides. Nanosheets are essentially wide nanowires. Fabrication 1. Grow alternating Si/SiGe superlattice stack. 2. Pattern into narrow fin structures (< 10nm width creates wire-like cross-section). 3. Dummy gate patterning, spacer formation, S/D epitaxy. 4. Selective SiGe removal releases suspended Si nanowires. 5. Gate-all-around high-k/metal gate deposited wrapping each wire. Advantages - Superior electrostatic control: Near-ideal subthreshold slope (~62 mV/dec at room temp). - Excellent short-channel effect suppression: DIBL < 30 mV/V. - Low leakage: Gate fully controls the channel with no ungated surfaces. Challenges - Drive Current: Small cross-section limits current per wire. Must stack many wires (4-8) to get adequate drive. - Variability: Small dimensional variations in wire diameter have large impact on threshold voltage. - Parasitic Capacitance: Gate wrapping multiple wires in close proximity increases capacitance.

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